Approval and Disapproval Expressions in English and Arabic: A Contrastive Study

Abstract

Any language in the world wide has different expressions and terms that convey approval or disapproval that language speakers may use in their daily life. English language for instance, is full of such expressions and can be found in any situation needs to. The present research studies approval and disapproval in English with their counterparts in Arabic as a contrastive study. It tries to search for those terms or sentences that are used to express approval and disapproval in English with their counterparts in Arabic. It aims to highlight the points of similarities and differences between those expressions that are used to state approval and disapproval in the two languages. Also the study includes a contrastive analysis to the expressions of approval and disapproval in English with their equivalents in Arabic in order to come up with the conclusions. It concluded that the approval and disapproval expressions in English language are similar to their counterparts in Arabic language but differ in two points. Firstly in Arabic language main verbs are used to convey approval and disapproval whereas in English are not. Secondly, in English language the exclamatory style is used to express approval in contrast, Arabic language is not. Researchers, teachers, translators and any who cares about English language and linguistics can get benefit from this study, precisely because it includes a comparison between two languages, English language and Arabic, with several types of expressions and terms that are being actually used to express approval and disapproval.